Hi again Sue... there are many things to remember when starting out, so to start with set your camera up when you first arrive and fire off a couple of stats at the perch. Then you can judge if you need to increase the ISO to achieve the shutter speed and aperture that you want. Set the camera to record RAW and JPG, you might not be ready to process RAW images, however the files will be available if you decide to have a go.

I set my Nikon D700 to Aperture priority, an aperture of f8 and an ISO to give me a speed around 1/500. Auto focus to continuous and single point focusing, exposure to Spot metering, White balance to Direct Sunlight or Cloudy and shutter release to continuous.

Everyone sets their camera up differently, however when you are starting out this may help you concentrate on taking the images rather than worrying about the camera setup.

Hope it helps Trev

I feel that you need to widen the depth of field as not all of the stamen are in focus. When using a macro lens you need to use much smaller apertures to achieve a wide DOF. I have this lens and in my opinion it's very good, so try f13 or above and see what difference you get. You may want to increase your shutter speed if hand holding this lens, especially is the flower is moving in the wind.

Trev

Hi Sue, a lovely crisp image that you are aware is suffering from being underexposed. However I have downloaded the image and when lightened the BG gets a little noisy, this is undoubtably due to the high ISO and shutter speed used. Next time drop your shutter speed down to around 1/500 this will allow you to use a much lower ISO, the level of noise will then fall away.

You did very well with this, nice detail in the eye. My only critique is to add a little more space above the bird.

Trev

Hi Simon, I assume that you are hand holding the camera.

First the way that you hold the camera will help, hold it firmly whilst tucking your arms into the side of your body and firmly against your face. With a long lens I often hold the focus ring with my left hand.

Apply the reciprocal rule and set the shutter speed in excess of your focal length, taking the crop factor in the calculation. In this case 1/470 or greater.

Set the auto focus to centre weighted and focus on the eye.

Make the bird as large as possible in the view finder so as not to over crop the image in post production.

Don't use a high ISO that will increase the chance of noise, 600 would have been more than enough.

Get it right in the camera as trying to fix it later will always be a compromise.

Hope this helps

Trev

You should be able to get decent shots handheld even at 250mm, Try setting the camera to centre weighted auto focus and focus on the birds eye, your shutter speed is ok possibly raising the ISO to 400 would have let you use a smaller aperture giving a wider depth of field this would have given you some lee way..... nice composition and colour.

Trev

Hi Paintersmate, as Pablo has already said more of the left should ideally been included. Working with what you have here I cant see any other crop than one placing the window central to the frame, which is against my normal instinct. Also you have not placed yourself central which has caused the window bars not to appear parallel, however easily rectified using the Skew tool in PS Transform.

My mode attempts to address my points.... hope it helps.

Trev

Hi Stephen.

The main problem here is that you have focused on the foreground rather then the eye of the Robin and in an attempt to remedy this you have over sharpened the image. This has the effect of making he bird appear flat and lacking detail. Noise has also crept into the background with has not been caused by a high ISO as you have selected an ISO OF 200 which should provide a clean image.

Have you cropped this shot, which could account for the noisy BG, if so, you could have used more of the 400mm from your zoom.

To get a sharp shot image:

1. Use a tripod if practical.
2. Focus on the eye of the bird.
3. Get the bird as large as possible in the frame so as to reduce any crop.
4. Set the focus area to centre weighted.
5. Get it right as much as possible in the camera.

Hope this helps.

Trev

Well done Nigel, a definite improvement from the first upload. You could try adding a little contrast and maybe a small amount of saturation.

Trev

I have to agree with Paul, a closer crop is needed for this capture.

Whilst good to see it in it's natural habitat it is sometimes necessary to clean up the shot to remove distractions. So in my mod I have cropped, used the gamut of PS Lightening tools to brighten the cropped image and removed some of the lower distracting twigs.

Just my take on your nice image.

Trev

As you rightly say it is dark and yes f18 is a very small aperture to use . I feel that when photographing birds in general it's the depth of field that you are interested in so Aperture Priority is the norm. I would have started at F8 and at 119mm set the ISO so that you have a shutter speed in excess of 1/200 sec. With Swans it is very important not to over expose the white plumage, reviewing the image with the highlights displayed can give you indication of this.

Luckily with some amount of underexposure you can recover some by using the levels and lightness tools in PS.

It would also have helped by not having he second swan in the image.

In my mod I have brightened the image, added a small amount of catch light to the eye and applied a slightly closer crop.

Just my take on your image.... hope it helps.

Trev

Hi Prabh, I quite like the idea of he person sat looking out to sea, however there are some things that I would change. The thing that catches my eye is the waste bin and sacks of rubbish, you need to position yourself so that these are not in the frame. The horizon is central to the frame it would be better higher or lower in the frame. The colours do not look natural it seems to have a blue cast.

Trev

Hi Nick... you have the most important element right in this Robin shot, it's in focus. To my mind the image would suit a portrait crop and include more room above the bird.

I have loaded a mod in which I have tried to show what I mean, please ignore the very rough cloning used to add extra to the canvas above the bird . I have also added some unsharp mask to make the image slightly crisper.

Hope this helps.

Trev

I think you need to clone out the vase on the table....

Trev

Hi Chris, first well done for pressing the Critique button, like Frank says it's a great place to learn.

I have to assume you are using an editing suite like photoshop. I find it better to use the Enhance Adjust Lighting tools and set the levels so that the histogram is balanced, then under the Adjust Lighting make changes to the Highlights, in this case to darken the highlights. Then in necessary change the contrast. When this has been done you can work on Hue/Saturation for he image....

Anyhow thats how I tend to deal with an image..... others will do it differently.

I have uploaded a mod.... there was nothing I could do with the blown highlights, however I have changed the crop, to remove some of the blown sky, and hue and saturation giving it a more natural look.

Trev

Hi Andy... birds in flight can be difficult to get in frame and crisp and your shot is reasonably clear. However the composition is very tight in all areas apart from the top of the frame. It's important to leave room in front of the bird so that it has room to fly into and some room below the bird so that the birds head is somewhere near the thirds intersection.

In my mod I have added room in front and below the hawk and remove some above, the image is a little underexposed so I have lightened and sharpened it a little.

Trev

Hi Michael, there is not alot you can do to improve this shot in post production as you or more likely the camera has chosen the white spot on the leaf to focus on rather than the stamen of the flower. Your composition has not been helped by cropping the top of the flower.

When uploading images for critique make sure that they are sharp, there are ways to increase the probability of getting it right.

Use an aperture that will give you a DOF that will keep all of the flower in focus whilst blurring the background, on a DLSR f8 would go some way to achieving this, however it looks as if you are using a compact so try experimenting to see what you get.

Try a faster shutter speed as at 1/80sec you are likely to get camera shake.

If possible set you camera to spot focus and focus on the stamen, centre of the flower.

When you have the sharpness sorted.... concentrate on composition and there is alot on this site to point you in the right direction.

Trev

Hi Dinah, not using a tripod doesn't always mean your images are not going to be sharp. Looking at your EXIF data you are using an aperture of f4.5, shutter speed of 1/160 a focal length of 180mm and an ISO value of 200.

The wide aperture is going to give you a shallow depth of field, making your focussing critical, try f8 this will give you some depth.
At 180mm you should be using a shutter speed of at least 1/300, the faster speed will reduce the effect of camera shake. To workout the shutter speed when hand holding a camera click on this link
Finally increase your ISO setting to achieve changes to both of the above.

And don't forget to use the unsharp mask to sharpen the image.

Hope this helps.

Trev

As you have asked for critique...

The river draws your eyes into the frame and riverbank and that is where your POF should be, selecting the shrub to the left in my honest opinion does not work in this image.

Trev

A nice image... however a tighter crop does away with some of the pillar and an adjustment to the levels to boost the image, in my mind helps the overall capture.

Trev